Raspberry Pi Forums

I am at the early step of decision making for a project that consists in controlling 20 to 40 doors access with RFID

The goal is to have a number of employees/visitors in a database, grant access to specific doors per user and compute access times and dates.

I don't want to be stuck having a malfunction or bad communication that would render any door lock inoperative so what I am thinking is having one Pi/reader at each door (some two readers per Pi for in/out) and a Mysql database on each Pi clustered and all synchronized together with a master on a server so that if connection is lost with the server all doors remain operational.

Each Pi would be either Ethernet wired or Wifi or RS-xxx, which means of communication would be the most reliable based on above?
Would a Pi Zero be sufficient?
With this much said, am I on a good path?

I would like to have your comments and suggestions.

Thanks

Mike

JABpi wrote:I am at the early step of decision making for a project that consists in controlling 20 to 40 doors access with RFID

The goal is to have a number of employees/visitors in a database, grant access to specific doors per user and compute access times and dates.

I don't want to be stuck having a malfunction or bad communication that would render any door lock inoperative so what I am thinking is having one Pi/reader at each door (some two readers per Pi for in/out) and a Mysql database on each Pi clustered and all synchronized together with a master on a server so that if connection is lost with the server all doors remain operational.

Each Pi would be either Ethernet wired or Wifi or RS-xxx, which means of communication would be the most reliable based on above?
Would a Pi Zero be sufficient?
With this much said, am I on a good path?

I would like to have your comments and suggestions.

Thanks

Mike

ADVICE, Use a commercial RFID system , Where staff and personnel are involved.
For safety and security ,I don't think a home made system would stand up in
Court, if some one got accidently locked in a room.

Regards BoyOh

I'm sure doors would be able to be exited without the card...that's fire safety 101.

I like it..I would certainly prefer wifi over wiring each unit and think the zero should do the job just fine. But you will have to run power to each - batteries aren't going to be practical.

@boyoh,
This is a smart advice.
I've been doing a lot of browsing and I will end up installing an existing solution that is already certified and is ready to take the blame if something was to happen. I will also learn from it and end up with a better solution than I was aiming for.

I will still design a solution starting with a Pi and give it a great deal of testing before I commit to setting up at customers. I may move away from the Pi down the line but I find the Pi a good place to start.

Please don't take this response as the end of the thread, I was hoping to get tons of suggestions so feel free to add your comments.

Mike

JABpi wrote:@boyoh,
This is a smart advice.
I've been doing a lot of browsing and I will end up installing an existing solution that is already certified and is ready to take the blame if something was to happen. I will also learn from it and end up with a better solution than I was aiming for.

I will still design a solution starting with a Pi and give it a great deal of testing before I commit to setting up at customers. I may move away from the Pi down the line but I find the Pi a good place to start.

Please don't take this response as the end of the thread, I was hoping to get tons of suggestions so feel free to add your comments.

Mike

BY all means carry on with the project ,as a learning curve, The Raspberry Pi was designed
To learn programming and electronics. You can always simulate the project operation.to see
It working and sort the bugs out , Remember your coding must be FAIL TO SAFE.
All doors open on system FAIL

Regards BoyOh Retired Electrical / Electronic / Technician